The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for centrally collecting measured values of a variable parameter from each of a plurality of monitored work stations. The method and apparatus find particular utility in a yarn textile processing machine which includes a plurality of yarn processing stations.
In German Pat. No. 30 05 746 and corresponding Canadian Pat. No. 1,135,384, there is disclosed a method wherein the data which is measured in a multi-position textile machine, and which continuously is received from a plurality of monitoring points, is collected and processed by a central data processing system. The ability to scan the monitored points is facilitated in that there are provided several decentralized data processing units positioned between the central data processing system and the monitoring points. Thus, only a limited number of monitoring points are respectively associated to each of the decentralized data processing units. These decentralized data processing units involve the scanning, and the intermediate storage of the data.
With the above described process, the scanning speed and scanning frequency are increased, but the system is relatively costly and the disadvantage remains that only the momentary values of the measurements are collected at the moment of scanning. In other words, only random values are determined and evaluated, and such random values are unable to provide a reliable indication of the operation of the process and the quality of the resulting product.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for continuously monitoring a variable parameter at each of a plurality of work stations, and which more accurately reflects the operation of the process and the quality of the resulting product.